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Monitoring

The Information Collection Rule directed water systems to monitor microbials and disinfection by-products and other constituents, and to provide data to the US Environmental Protection Agency. The purpose of the rule was to use real data to develop future rules on disinfectants and their by-products and for developing regulations for treating surface water. The required data collection was completed in December 1998 and is now available for review at the EPA Web site.

The Portland Water Bureau has been collecting similar data for several decades. It has been collecting data on Giardia lamblia and Cryptosporidium since approximately 1990.

Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (2002)

Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, public water systems serving more than 10,000 people must monitor for unregulated contaminants. The Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR), effective May 2002, requires that large public water systems be responsible for collecting samples, having them properly analyzed, reporting the results, and notifying the public. The Environmental Protection Agency uses the data generated by the new UCMR to evaluate and prioritize contaminants on the Drinking Water Contaminants Candidate List, a list of contaminants EPA is considering for possible new drinking water standards. The UCMR contaminant monitoring has been completed for the Bull Run system and none of these contaminants were detected. EPA provides access to this data on their website.